


This coming year, I stand with the Doctor

by TheStrangeSeaWolf



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Analysis, Gen, Meta, New Year's Resolutions, Reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:40:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22047271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStrangeSeaWolf/pseuds/TheStrangeSeaWolf
Summary: I wrote this piece originally for myself to read it when I feel tempted to go into twitter figths, especially concerning the Twelfth Doctor. After I read some hurtful tweets concerning Season 9 yesterday, I thought I'd share it.I thought it might help others who feel the same, too.Maybe it doesn't.But here it is.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	This coming year, I stand with the Doctor

It happens every time someone says something dismissive about the era of the Twelfth Doctor in Doctor Who: I have the urge to start arguing with that person. Although I learned a long time ago that it is useless and hurtful to do so.

You will never convince people who have strong opinions. You will especially not convince people on social media because this is a place where people state strong opinions for the fun of getting into fights and for drawing attention to themselves.

I have learned to stay away from those fights if it isn’t for things that really matter, like, if someone is bullied and harassed personally because they are different. Here, it is important to stand up and defend. For a TV show, it isn’t.

However, I will try to tell you why I always have the urge to argue in the case of the Twelfth Doctor:

Because I know how it feels if you are walking in a world that seems strange to you and you don’t know yourself anymore. You look in the mirror and it is hard to believe the person staring back at you is really you.

Because I know how it feels if the one person that is important to you says they don’t know you anymore.

I can relate to the Doctor in _Deep Breath_.

Because I know sometimes you think a person you care for has to learn to stand on their own feet, that it is time to stop always making the decisions for them. That it is time they carry the responsibility for their own actions.

Because I know you might learn that person wasn’t ready to do that. That you effectively left them alone the moment they needed you most.

Because that person might decide to leave you, or even this world.

I can relate to the Doctor in _Kill the Moon_.

Because I know that sometimes you just have to be pragmatic, that you just have to carry on and try to improve things while other terrible things happen. That you can’t just dwell on how horrifying things are, because it will just drain your energy without helping anyone.

I can relate to the Doctor in _The Mummy on the Orient Express_.

Because I know how it feels if someone is so important to you that you will do anything for them, but there are boundaries you can’t cross. And that there is nothing they can do that is so terrible that you will not forgive them.

I can relate to the Doctor in _Dark Water_.

Because I know that sometimes you feel you have to close off all your feelings and act abrasive in order to protect yourself. Because I know that fear to make yourself vulnerable if you let someone close to you.

I can relate to the Doctor in _Season 8_.

Because I know that sometimes, when you believe that it’s the end, that there is nothing good left and that you won’t make it out alive, you might discover there are people out there who care. Who will search for you and who are willing to go to the gates of hell with you, not knowing if there is anything they can do for you.

I can relate the Doctor in _The Magician’s Apprentice_.

Because I know how it feels if the clock is ticking for someone you love and there is nothing you can do to stop it. That the only thing you can do is to be there and watch them die.

I can relate to the Doctor in _Face the Raven_.

Because I know that when you lost someone you will go through all the pain you feel over and over again, every single day of your life. Because I know that no matter what you do, they will still be gone.

Because I know how it feels to smash your fist against a wall that is tougher than diamond in the hopes to save someone you love. That there will be this one day where you will finally break through.

I can relate to the Doctor in _Heaven Sent_.

Because I know how desperate you can become when you try to save someone, that you might lose all sense for adequate actions and you need someone else to bring you back to your senses again.

I can relate to the Doctor in _Hell Bent_.

Because I know how it feels to love someone and lose that someone you love.

I can relate to the Doctor in _Season 9_.

Because I know that sometimes you have to accept that you are not the one who is able to solve the problem. Because sometimes you have to accept there is someone younger more capable to save the day.

I can relate to the Doctor in _The Lie of the Land._

Because I know how it feels to be too late.

Because I know how it feels if you can’t keep your promise.

Because I know how it feels if someone you hoped would have stood with you turns their back.

I can relate to the Doctor in _The Doctor Falls_.

Because I know how it feels if you lose the will to go on.

Because I know the feeling of having lost too many.

I can relate to the Doctor in _Twice upon a Time_.

Because I know how it feels if you find new purpose in passing knowledge on and because I know that sometimes the best you can do is to try and be kind.

I can relate to the Doctor in _Season 10_.

Because I can relate to the Twelfth Doctor so much it feels like a personal attack or an attack to a friend if I read hurtful comments.

This is a reminder for me not to pick those fights.

It doesn’t hurt me if someone has a different opinion.

It doesn’t hurt me if someone thinks that the era was badly written.

It is not a personal attack if someone says so.

Everybody has the right to have an opinion, even if it is one I can’t agree with.

I accept that not everybody sees the Doctor the same way I do.

I accept that other people might need something else from the Doctor and they didn’t find it in Twelve’s era.

Doctor Who is a TV show. No matter how much it means to me it is not worth getting upset about it.

It matters what it means to me, not what other people think about it.

For this upcoming year, I promise me this:

I will only take a stand if another human being is personally bullied and harassed for how or where they were born, or the way they look, or who they love, or what they feel and believe in. 

I will refrain from all other fights.

Instead I will try to enforce the positive voices.

I will lend my hand when I see someone struggling.

I will try to understand people who think differently.

And I will try to be kind.

And when I am standing on that battlefield again, see all those I have lost and have the feeling I don’t want to go on, I will look over to the Doctor and say:

_**“Doctor, if you are doing another lifetime, I sure can do another year.”** _


End file.
